PRAA - Dog

At Veterinary Specialist Services, we work closely with a number of charities including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). This week, it was all heads together, as we collaborated on a very complex case. The goal to fix a 6 month old puppy with a history of regurgitation (bringing up food). The condition was severe enough that he was unable to hold food down at all. The puppy was extremely underweight because of this. Imaging revealed that he had a stricture of the oesophagus at the heart base (within the chest) so food was not passing normally into his stomach. With further imaging and gastroscopy, we were able to diagnose a Persistent Right Aortic Arch. This is a congenital abnormality located in the chest, where one of the embryonic arches that forms the heart, persists and forms a ring that traps the oesophagus. This condition requires advanced surgery. The only way to remove this ring around the oesophagus is to explore the chest surgically and ligate the ligament that is causing the problems.

This involved a huge team effort between Veterinary Specialst Services, Animal Emergency Services and the RSPCA. Our cardiologist Dr Fiona Meyers helped to diagnose the condition, our surgeons Adjunct Professor Philip Moses and Dr Abbie Tipler performed a thoracotomy (opening the chest) to ligate the ligament in front of the heart, our highly trained nurses monitored the anaesthesia, the emergency service AES cared for the patient intensively overnight and the wonderful team at the RSPCA picked the patient up the next day to take him to a loving foster carer who will care for him until he is recovered enough to go to his new home. A big thanks to all the hard work by everyone and we were very pleased with the outcome for this little puppy. This radiograph is a barium study showing barium collecting in the dilated constricted oesphagus in front of the obstruction.